Latest market data

Stock search

Come 2015, Keurig is aiming to put its home-brewing business on
ice -- all with a little help from one of the biggest beverage
brands on the planet, Coca-Cola.

In what could portend a tidal shift for the soda industry, Coke
has signed a 10-year agreement with Keurig-maker Green Mountain
Coffee Roasters, under which its illustrious portfolio of brands
-- including Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid and many more -- will be
developed for use by a forthcoming Keurig Cold at-home beverage
device.

Green Mountain will serve as the “exclusive partner for the
production and sale of” Coke-branded “single-serve, pod-based
beverages,” the company said in a release. “The two companies
also will explore other future opportunities to collaborate on
the Keurig platform.”

Further cementing the partnership, Coca-Cola acquired a 10
percent ownership stake in Green Mountain -- or roughly 17
million shares -- in a deal valued at $1.25 billion. In response
to the news, Green Mountain shares were up 25 percent on Thursday
morning. Coke shares were up about 1 percent.

Competitor Sodastream was down as much as 13 percent in
after-hours trading yesterday when news of the partnership first
broke, but recouped all of its losses and was back in the green
when trading opened on Thursday. This might’ve been due to chatter that, in response, Pepsi
could snap up the Israel-headquartered company.

The move by Coke “demonstrates our creative approach to
partnerships and ability to identify and stay at the forefront of
consumer trends driving the industry,” the company’s chairman and
CEO, Muhtar Kent, said in a statement.

While the home brew paradigm revolutionized the coffee industry,
Keurig is hurrying to bring the technology and open-architecture
platform (in which anybody can create pods for use by the system)
into other categories.

Last September, the company partnered with Campbell’s Soup to unveil
Fresh-Brewed Soup K-Cups that can be made by Keurig coffee
brewers in a two-part preparation that includes a broth brewed
over a packet of dried pasta and vegetables.